Assorted updates on family and farm.

K1's latest family photo 

The house seems a little quieter while K3 and her family spend this month in Texas and Costa Rico.

This is hopefully our last batch of baby chicks to be brooded this year. This batch is in our living room while waiting for the last batch to move from dairy shed into the coop with the big flock.

K2 regularly plays with the chicks. He has his favorites, and they come to him.

K6 took this beautiful photo from our back, upper deck with his iPhone before moving to Utah.

Mom just returned from 2 1/2 weeks helping deliver K4's fifth child - our ninth grandchild.  His name is Samuel.

K8 spending his hard earned money on things that go "boom" on the 4th of July. Half of his income goes in the bank, and after he pays tithing, the rest is his to spend as he sees fix.

How does he earn money? This week it was by helping our friend Brian repair our tractor. While waiting for parts, he did preventive maintenance by greasing all around and under the tractor.

Brian came over to diagnose the problem with the tractor. A month ago it started making a horrendous noise under the hood. The two tractor repair shops in town were backed up because it's haying season, so I am very thankful he came. Turned out to be the water pump. He did a great job patiently teaching K8.  

Once he explained things, he put the tools into K8's hands and guided him. K2 helped one day. Once the parts arrived from the John Deere dealer, it took 3 evenings to complete the work, because Brian was coming over after he got off work. Now I can get back to moving hay bales into the corral for storage, and bush hogging the hillside.

Where was K7? Getting ready to attend a week-long Especially For Youth session at the University of Missouri. He and other friends worked on three skits in preparation for a talent show at EFY. Sorry for the blurry pics. My camera does not do well with moving targets. I wish I had K3's nice DSR camera, but she took it with her to Texas!

When I drove them to Columbia for EFY, they had one large suitcase that was full of props for their skits. A week after they return home, they will put on their skits again at Church during a cook-out and talent show.